River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-01-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our regular correspondent

Although the expected Revenue Re
form fight failed to come off in Congress
this week, other important questions
came to the front and resulted in more
legislation than probably months of Tariff
talk would have done. The House of
Representative Expressed itself over
wheimingly in favor of Identifying the
Department of Agriculture with seat in
in the Cabinet, and it expressed itself
almost as positively in favor of extirpat-
ing the hierarchy at Salt Lake city.
The great question OF Interstate Com
merce still hangs fire in the Senate, and
the more it is discussed and the more the
objections raised to it are considered,
the more the unbiased mind is impressed
with the necessity of making it law.
But as a Senator recently said, it must be
adopted or rejected as a whole The
pending bill is the result of struggle of
ten years, and if it is rejected, there is no
telling when another bill can be brought
TO vote.
1t was intended that the debate on this
measure should be finished on Thursday,
but it was found that this would entail a
night session, and as most of the Senators
expressed desire to attend the Presi-
dents reception that evening, given in
honor of the Diplomatic Corps, the vote
was deferred. The Farmers Congress,
which has been in session at the Agri-
cultural Department for several days, zap
pointed committees to wait upon the Sen
ate and House to urge the passage of the
Interstate Commerce bill, and other
measures of interest to agriculturalists.
There was an interesting debate over
the Anti-Polygamy bill on Wednesday in
the House Of Representatives just before
the measure passed that body. Congress-
man Taylor Of Ohio, the member who
represents the district to which Mr.. Gar
field formerly belonged, gavea briefsketch
of the establishment of the Mormon
church in Utah. Its friend, the legis-
lature of Utah, he said, would not stran-
gle it, but Congress must, and fortunately
Congress could. 1t had the legal power
under the Constitution, and it had the
means at hand to exercise it.
Mr.. Taylor said, while this people and
this church deied the moral sense of
civilization and he was heartily infavor
of the main feature of this bill against
them, he was unalterably opposed to one
of its provisions-that abolishing female
suffrage in the territory OF Utah. He
stood appalled, at the first suggestion of
taking the electoral franchise from a con-
siderable class of people accustomed to
its use. Would the precedent here be in
voked hereafter, and if so, in what diIec-
ton
Mr. Craine, the territorial delegate Who
represents the MormOns in Congress, de-
Tended his constituents with great earn
estness, and his speech commanded
close attention from the floor as well as
from the galleries. He said that the
Mormons, although that they had suf-
fered indignities, insults, ostracism and
SANDER for years, had made the desert to
blossom like a garden of flowers. He
spoke of their pieiy and thrift, and pledged
his word and his character, that the char
ges and the statement upon which this
legislation was based were with out foun-
dation in fact. Mormonism, he held,
would be swept away by the progress of
events if God in his wisdom had so APP
pointed.
Mr.. Bennett, of North Carolina, who
was opposed to this legislation and Messrs.
Caswell, of Wis, Tucker, of Va, and
Reed of Maine were the other speakers.
Reed was disposed to think the wisest
course would be for Congress to take com
plete control of Utah. And why that
territory? Because a body of religionists
there had taken possession Of property
belonging to the United States. 1t was
not only body of religionists, it was a
people that had policy. That was the
keynote of the situation. They intend TO
people that territory exclusively with
Mormons, and to aggregate to themselves
a portion Of the property of the United
States. Congress was to-day roofing out
an unjust possession of the soil that be-
longs to the people. Mr.. Reed thought it
was useless to call this bill an assault up
on religion. Polygamy was only one of
the manifestations of a bad condition of
society in Utah.
Mr. Tucker, of Va, also contended that
the territory of the United States did not
belong to the first little squad of men who
settled in it and said, I'VE are monarchs
of all we survey" 1t was the duty Of
Congress to say it should not be monopol-
| by any class of men or by any church.
He would vote against the bin if he
thought there was one thing in it that
| trenched out the conscience even of a
| Mormon. Mr.. Tucker, who was frequent
| ly applauded, had good deal 10 say about
the nucleus of a nation being in the homes
of its people. He thanked God there
were still plenty of homes where one man
and one woman loved each other su-
premely. That was the foundation of the
body polite. Without II there would not
be a Christian state tit to inhabit. In
Utah, the heart of the husband was diff
fused among a number. That was the
basis of civilization that went out 1000
years ago.